Diverging Discourses: Gender Differences in Televised Golf Announcing

Abstract

Previous analyses of sports telecasts found disparities between the ways male and female athletes were portrayed by on-air commentators, but no previous analysis has examined gender differences within professional golf telecasts. Examination of 34,881 descriptors within 243.5 hours of televised PGA and LPGA golf located 2 dozen critical differences in the ways male and female golfers were portrayed. Most crucially, women were more likely than men to be described in terms of why they succeeded or failed, whereas men were more likely than women to be depicted with personality or physical attributes, a notable change from earlier research findings for other sports. Comparison with the findings in 9 seminal studies of sports announcing showed that golf commentary is distinctively different from other types of sports commentary. The results counter the previously identified female stereotype of implied physical weakness, while potentially exemplifying a newer stereotype of female golfers achieving because they are lucky.